RE: Oliver Tiger Major
On CS Olivers. We, Wal and I, have been using a CS Oliver in various racing events at KMFC in Sydney. To say that the CS engine is the equivalent of a genuine is far from true. You only get what you pay for in this life and while you MAY (not at all guaranteed) get a good one, how long it will last is the real question. We have broken shafts and rods and never had quite the horsepower of a really good genuine Oliver and no where near the horsepower of a Steve Rothwell R250 which is another class again.
The CS Olivers can give a taste as to what an Oliver is like, but sadly if it's not a good one it can be a sour taste! The needle valve assemblies on the CS Oliver engines are atrocious, be warned.
Wal owns the engines and Steve did a lot of work on them to give Wal a hand to get going in racing. He's supplied shafts, rods and piston sleeve assemblies and his venturi and needle valve assemblies to the couple of engines that Wal started out with. They are now nice handling powerful engines, but in all honesty use just about only the CS crankcase!!!!!!!!
Both Wal and I have now bought ourselves an R250 each. These are so far removed from the CS olivers in quality of materials, fit's and finish and exceed the original engines standards in all respects. Every engine is hand tested before Steve will send it out and has to meet strict performance standards before it goes to the customer. When it arrives it comes with 6 pages of instructions covering every facet of usage. These instructions go into the fine details of adjusting the ignition improver percentages for changes in atmospheric conditions to give an idea of just how comprehensive they are. This is also a reflection on Steve's approach to sending out a consistent high quality product.
I've got one of the Mk II Oliver Majors on order from the UK, I just have to have one in my lifetime, bugger the cost! I just wanted to make sure that I'd specified the right one and looking at the pics of the one you bought Bob, I have ordered the right one.
Can I tempt you to a new Genuine Mk 4 Hard Chromed Oliver Tiger ? it's really a collectors engine and the collector in me has been saying " you can't use it, you just cannot use it!!!!!" and I simply couldn't bring myself to use it now I have the R250
Cheers John
Cheers John